The Offering
by crematosis
Summary: According to legends and lore, a powerful ancient being slumbered beneath the waters around Steve's village, a being that offered up its protection in exchange for a virgin sacrifice. Steve might be just desperate enough to offer himself up as that sacrifice.


Antonithen stirred in the deep, the faint tingle of a summoning at the edge of his consciousness. It had been so long since he had been called to the mortal realm. But perhaps it only felt that way. Time lost all sense of meaning in the space between worlds where he slumbered.

He stretched his tentacles upward and began making the slow journey towards the thin veil between worlds.

It would be so nice to see his little cult again. They had once been a fairly strong tribe of almost two hundred, utterly devoted to him. They had always offered up the very best of their crops and livestock to him and in return, he had kept their village safe from invaders. And when the tribe marched off to war, young men and women had happily given him their virginity in exchange for his powerful strength. Many had fought for the honor in fact. The lucky few basked in his powerful tentacles, kissing and caressing his damp, velvety skin as they would a human lover. Tony, they had called him, as a term of endearment. He had always been pleased seeing them happy and thriving.

But the last time he had seen them, they weren't doing well at all. Sickness had been spreading through the village and they had beseeched him for help, desperately offering up everything they could think of if he would only ease the suffering of their people. But there was nothing he could do for them. He was a god of war, not of healing. And their faith had been shaken.

By now, the disease had hopefully run its course. He never wanted to see his people in such distress ever again.

His longest tentacle pierced the veil between the worlds and he fought the urge to recoil from the frigid cold water. Not for the first time, Tony wished the veil wasn't at its thinnest beneath what seemed like the coldest water on earth. According to the tribe's lore, it was a bottomless pool of water that their god slept in. Tony hadn't bothered to correct them. His realm was beyond human understanding.

He surged upwards quickly and burst out of the pool of water, into the large cave his people had consecrated as his sacred temple. Most of the tribe showed up for every summoning, eager to look upon their god and they had crammed themselves in all along the recesses of the cave, holding lit torches for light. The high priest of Antonithen's cult had stood at the very edge of the water, chanting his name and reading beautiful poems and words of praise out of a massive book.

Although the tribe was surely a lot smaller now after being ravaged by illness, Tony still expected some sort of fanfare and ritual. So he was massively surprised to see the cave was almost completely empty. There was just a single man, pale-skinned with pale hair standing at his altar and staring up at him with wide, blue eyes.

"Who are you?" Tony demanded. "What has become of my people?"

"I-I," the blonde man said. He swallowed convulsively.

It had been so long since Tony had been looked upon with something like fear. His people had always greeted his arrival with delight.

"Speak, mortal. What people do you belong to? Has your tribe dared attack the people under my sacred protection?"

The man furiously flipped through the altar book, which Tony noted with alarm was now yellowed with age. "O great ancient one. Great Antonithen. Let your people find safety and protection under your ten thousand tentacles. Let all enemies perish before your all-powerful might."

There was something weird in the cadence of the man's speech. He stumbled over some words, mispronounced others. Almost like he didn't speak the language.

Huh. The blonde man's tribe must have travelled pretty far then. All the surrounding tribes Tony was familiar with spoke the same common tongue.

Tony lowered his massive bulk so he was eye level with the human and spoke in a slow, soothing voice. "You are a very interesting human. Nobody would be stupid enough to invade a village under the protection of a god and then invoke that god's aid. So your situation must be very grave indeed."

The human curled shaking hands around the altar. "O great ancient one. Great Antonithen. Let your people-"

"Yes, yes, we've gone over that already," Tony said with a dismissive wave of one tentacle. "Explain your purpose, human."

The human turned another page in the book and cleared his throat. "I, Steve Rogers, born and raised in the sacred village of Antonithen call upon you as a mortal man under your protection."

Tony started to snort with derision. There was no way this pale, blonde thing had been born in his village. His people all had the same olive-toned complexion that matched the color of his tentacles. And that was always how they had proclaimed themselves truly the people of their god.

But perhaps it wasn't such a crazy idea as it had seemed at first. The altar book had clearly not been used for several centuries. In all that time, maybe his beloved people had all died to the plague and other had come in to colonize the abandoned village. Or perhaps they had sought human aid and graciously welcomed the pale-skinned people who had saved them into their village. Within a couple generations of intermingling, it was possible the people of his village now looked completely different.

"Very well, Steve Rogers," Tony said. "State your request."

"O great one, I come to you, I…" He frowned at the book and repeated the phrase over to himself under his breath.

Tony smiled encouragingly with all six mouths. For someone unfamiliar with the language, Steve was doing an admirable job stumbling through the formal ritual in the book.

"I come to you to ask for your blessing in battle," Steve said finally. "There's a war, uh…brewing. And we could use your help."

"What have you brought me as an offering?"

Steve cleared his throat. "There is nothing I own worthy of offering to a god." He swallowed and squared his shoulders. "The only thing I can give is myself. Take me, great one."

Tony stroked one tentacle over Steve's jawline. His pale, human skin had an oddly salty taste to it, an undertone of something smokey, but ah, there. Tony can detect the faint earthy, woody flavor unique to his people. If Tony is not very much mistaken, this pale blonde is one of the descendants of his last high priest. And that is very good news indeed.

"I accept your offering," Tony proclaimed.

Steve's shoulders sagged with relief and he bowed his head. "Thank you, great one. Do with me as you will."

Tony wrapped a few strong tentacles around Steve's body and hoisted him in the air. Immediately, the blonde thrashed in his grip and started shouting something in his own language.

"Oh, would you relax? I'm not going to drop you. Your great, great, great…" Tony paused to think about it. "Well, your ancestor however far back he was, my great high priest, had far more sense than you do."

Yes, Xinc had been a thoroughly respectable young man. He had been a virgin offering in his youth and decided to dedicate the rest of his life to Antonithen's service. His parents had been so proud when he had been chosen to succeed the previous high priest.

No one in Xinc's bloodline had made offerings this difficult. It must have been the pale people's influence.

"You are wearing far too many clothes," Tony muttered as his tentacles explored the seams of the leather armor Steve wore. His people had always worn loose, flowing clothing that gave him easy access. The more eager had come to him naked.

Steve shouted further protest as Tony peeled off the offending leather layers. Really, the man was far too high-strung for Tony's taste. He shoved a tentacle into his mouth to silence him.

"Quiet, human. I promise you I will return your garments to you once we are finished. As you can see, I have removed them undamaged." He waved them in front of Steve's eyes. "I'm sure they're military armor and you depend on them to protect you in battle, but I will be your protection from now on. I expect a little more respect and trust from you, human. I don't offer my services lightly."

Steve stared at him with wide, frightened eyes.

Tony sighed. "You don't understand a word I'm saying, do you?"

No matter. Once the human experienced the pleasure of his touch, he would forget all about his irrational fear of heights. But until then, he would need to keep the human calm. He didn't want him accidentally injuring himself with all his thrashing.

Tony focused on the tentacle shoved in the human's mouth and began secreting his thick lubricating gel. From what his humans told him, it worked as an aphrodisiac, heightening the pleasure they felt with him.

Gradually, the terror in Steve's expression started to fade and he started sucking on the tip of Tony's tentacle.

"Now we can get on with the show," Tony said approvingly. He pulled the tentacle out of Steve's mouth and used it to circle the human's dusky nipples.

Steve cried out and arched into the touch. "Antonithen!"

"Yes, that's my name," Tony said cheerfully. "And you say it so reverently. Xinc's blood really does flow through you." With another tentacle, he reached down to fondle the human's penis and testicles. "I bet his blood flows through here, too."

Steve moaned encouragingly and began to harden under his touch.

Tony curled his tentacle around Steve's shaft and stroked him to full hardness. The sex was mostly for his pleasure, but he liked seeing his humans enjoying themselves too. He slipped another tentacle behind Steve's balls, gently massaging his opening as he secreted more lube. Steve was beautifully responsive now that he was over his fear and he spread his legs eagerly, rocking back into Tony's tentacle.

Tony took care breaching him since he was, after all, a virgin offering and not a priest with a lifetime of sexual experience. But the gel did its job easing the pain and Steve only mewled a little.

He allowed the human a little time to bask in the sensation of being so thoroughly full and then began pumping his tentacle in and out of Steve's body.

Steve groaned throatily, repeating Antonithen's name over and over again like a chant until it became a garbled mess of syllables and then shortened to Tony.

Ah, just like old times.

Like a true virgin, Steve didn't last long. He came with a shout, back bowed, toes curled, face contorted with pleasure. Then his whole body went limp. He smiled up at Tony with a dazed, sated expression. "Antonithen," he said reverently.

Tony carefully lowered the human back to the ground. "I'm glad you summoned me, Steve. It seems most of my people have forgotten the old ways. Maybe once they see me again in all my glory, they'll-" He frowned as the human wobbled back to his feet and began picking up his discarded clothes. "You really ought to sit down for a bit. Having a mind-blowing orgasm takes a lot out of you."

Steve didn't respond, just pulled on his clothes with clumsy movements and staggered his way toward the mouth of the cave.

Tony sighed. Stubborn little human. Did he just not believe in the concepts of rest and relaxation? But he had promised his help and if Steve wanted to march into battle immediately, so be it.

He ducked down slightly to fit his massive bulk through the mouth of the cave and followed after his human.


End file.
